Everything working for Yanks in 9-5 victory

One of last night’s starters left the game with the following line: 2.1 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 K. Ask anyone who didn’t see the game, from either New York or Boston, and they’d say it was Chamberlain. No brainer. But it was Jon Lester who surrendered the runs. A liner off the knee ended his night early, though he likely would have exited soon thereafter anyway. He’d thrown 78 pitches and allowed 11 baserunners. It was one of his worst starts of the season, and it set the stage for a Yankee victory.

As with Burnett’s and Pettitte’s last starts, the Yankees were looking for some improvement from Joba this time around. They got it. He lasted six innings, breezing through the first three by retiring the Red Sox in order. He struggled a bit in the second half of his appearance, but nothing big. He left a pitch up that any hitter with power should have driven, and left one out over the plate for David Ortiz. Those were his only blemishes on the evening.

Beyond the stellar first three innings, Joba showed something in the fifth. He got himself into a jam by allowing a single and a double, and then worked his way out of it without allowing a run-scoring grounder or sac fly. The only reason it wouldn’t be considered impressive is because the first two outs came at the expense of Jason Varitek and Alex Gonzalez, who went a combined 0 for 7 on the night with four strikeouts. I still think it’s impressive. There are just so many ways for a team to score with a runner on third and none out, even with crappy hitters at the plate.

The rest of the game belonged to the offense. As if their 14 hits and nine walks weren’t enough, the Yanks also swiped seven bases — A-Rod three times and Jeter twice. They came to bat 21 times with runners in scoring position and collected hits seven times. Only three of the 14 hits were for extra bases, but the Yanks made them count. A-Rod’s homer put the Yanks up 3-0 early, Robinson Cano‘s double set them up later in the inning, and A-Rod’s double in the sixth gave them all the breathing room they’d need. The rest of the night, singles and walks worked just fine.

The Yankees got everything they could have wished for in this game. They beat Boston handily, and Joba pitched well. The team had a plan going in, to run on Jason Varitek, and they executed. Everything seemed to fall into place, and that’s always welcome against the Red Sox.

Question: should Girardi run out the A or the C lineup tomorrow? You don’t want to sit back after you just battered the Sox, but on the other hand you want to rest your regulars as much as possible. Jorge’s probably sitting or DHing because of the day game after the night game (and I bet a shiny penny that Cervelli starts behind the plate), so Joe could choose to start Hinske and others rather than his main guys, hoping that CC holds down the Sox and his bench guys can muster a few off Dice-K. It’s a late-afternoon affair, 4:00, and you’ll have to deal with Tim McCarver on the FOX broadcast. So glad I’m going to this one.

Shit, they can run out the E lineup for all it matters. These two games mean nothing. NOTHING.

In fact, I almost want Dice-K to look impressive against the E lineup tomorrow to lull the Sox fans into a false sense of security, so that when he gives up 10 runs against the Angels in the ALDS, it’s more of a suckerpunch.

Salty Buggah

CC starts. Cervelli catches. Pena is the only IFer. Guzman is the only OFer. Then, you let CC bat and just give up the other 5 outs.

Getting rested for the playoffs >>>>>>>>> the difference between CC going 18-7 and 20-7

Salty Buggah

Agreed. Though I’d like for A-rod to get some games to reach 30/100.

CanoFTW

CC is pitching two games no matter what… and the rest of the lineup will play at probably 6 out of the 8 games remaining – so why can’t you just line them up and rest the A lineup another day? Is that mutually exclusive?

Totally, but starting a decent lineup tomorrow because CC has a shot at 20 wins wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Obviously they Yanks will rest the starters a bit over the remaining regular season games, but it’s not like they’re going to sit every game from here on out. Let most of them, aside from Posada, start tomorrow to see if you can get CC to 20 wins. It’s a nice thing to do for the big man, 20 wins is still an important number to these guys. Take ’em out after 5 or 6 if you want. Point remains – They’re not going to sit for all the remaining games, so playing them tomorrow isn’t terrible.

CanoFTW

Kind of what I meant above – except slightly more eloquent… just a little bit

Yeah I was typing when you posted your comment and i hadn’t refreshed, my bad.

Chris

True, but at this point there is more of a risk of giving guys too many days off than too few.

Dela G

the yanks kicked lester’s ass tonight

too bad he had to get hurt :( I hope he’s ok

Stryker

so happy to see a-rod have a HUGE game. i’d like to think he’s shutting everyone up now, no?

Bob Stone

Yes but only until he has one poor game in the playoffs.

Jobamania

you can rest your players during the royals series. This is still the red sox and you want to give them a rude awakening and send them out of town without having any chance of tasting playoff here. especially the way papi talked about how they would have a HUGE celebration if they clinch here.

I want the A lineup out there, except for maybe posada, he can sit. We just had an off day, arod/swisher had 2 days in a row.

“especially the way papi talked about how they would have a HUGE celebration if they clinch here.”

I say let ’em act like morons if they want to. If they make a huge deal, just because they’re in Yankee Stadium, about clinching the wild card, it’ll just look petty and immature. They’ll look bad, and maybe it’ll stick in the Yankees’ craw a bit and piss them off.

Whatever. I don’t care where they clinch the wild card or where they celebrate.

I want to see Dice-walK make the “lemon face” when the Yankees jump all over him.

Bob Stone

I know it means nothing to the Yankees season, but I would like to see CC get 20 wins. He’s really earned that. I don’t think it will help him get the Cy Young Award either, but I’d still like to see him reach 20 wins.

Dela G

i thought this was interesting

from the game notes

The Yankees plan to start A.J. Burnett, Chad Gaudin and Chamberlain against Kansas City next week. That would enable them to flip flop Burnett and Andy Pettitte, with Burnett following CC Sabathia and starting Game 2 of the playoffs. …

Zack

i dont care what lineup they have out there- i want them to run all over Vmart tomorrow too and let Joe and Tim try to blame the pitcher

http://www.teamnerdrage.com leokitty

I hope to never see Albaladejo pitching for the Yankees ever again.

This probably wasn’t visible on TV but there was a ton of weird stuff going on in the bullpen, like Melancon warming for five minutes or something and then sitting down because Hughes started. And then Hughes stopping when Albaladejo got up. And then Hughes stopping and starting at least once more before he warmed up all the way and came into the game. It was bizarre but also why I didn’t have an issue with him not pitching through the rest of the game.

Greg

I feel like, while you want to rest the regulars down the stretch, you also don’t want to mess with anyone’s rhythm by giving them too much time off. The Yankees didn’t play yesterday and half the team didn’t play on thursday. I can see sitting a bunch of guys Sunday or Monday, but 3 out of 4 days is too many. Also, if you’re going to rest the guys one of the days, they’d probably rather give CC every chance to get 20 rather than getting Pettitte an extra win.

Zack

From LoHud:
” The seven stolen bases were the most for the Yankees since they stole eight against Oakland on June 2, 2006 at Oakland…. He is hitting .208 and is 9 for 119 throwing out base stealers.”‘

9 for 119? holy shit

http://martelli.mlblogs.com/melky%20c.jpg Drew

Didn’t he come in at 13% If so that can’t be right, can it?

DSFC

Yes, according to BR he was 15 for 100 coming into the game, which is 13%

http://martelli.mlblogs.com/melky%20c.jpg Drew

15 out of 115.

now he’s 15 out of 122 which is .122%. ha

Salty Buggah

EMBARRASING

http://twitter.com/JamalG_BB Jamal G.

The other six were from pick-offs.

Guest

This is a really, major, huge development. I don’t have the numbers, but V-Mart isn’t exactly Pudge Rodriguez in his prime back there, either. We should be able to run crazy on both catchers.

Seriously, every non-Matsui or Posoda single or walk should be considered a double against the Sox in the ALCS (Presuming we both get there).

BTW, how many steals will the Angels have off the Red Sox? Fifty ga-zillion?

Salty Buggah

How fitting is it that A-rod broke the Franchise Home HR Record?

Rey22

What I enjoyed the most out of today’s game was Varitek’s face every time we stole a base. Priceless.

http://ryanhandt.blogspot.com/ handtius

agreed.

JackISBACK

Oh snap, Are you guys insinuating that the “C” on Varitek’s chest doesn’t stand for Cannon?

Where is Kruk now? Team Flawless got their ass beat.

Nick

I was thinking the same thing. Vmart is no great shakes at catcher either, so I expect the Sox to give up a ton of steals come playoff time.

3 runs in six innings is pitching well? This is definitely the home for Joba apologists.

http://www.myspace.com/bayside Thirty5Thirty6

Ya. It’s called a quality start. Put your B-Jobber dunce hat on and please sit in the corner. Thanks.

pete

it was better than the box score, too. he breezed through the first 3, escaped tough jams the next two, and gave up a pop-up that caught some wind and YS3-juice to ortiz. I don’t think anybody thought that was going out off the bat. As for the martinez hr, I’d rather he throw something over the plate up 5-0 in a 2-0 count than walk him. If he hits it, so be it. And so it was. Joba pitched very economically and while not quite dominant, definitely had control of the BoSox lineup. So yeah, I’m pleased with his performance

Terrific photo of Ruth, guys. That’s one of the most famous photos in Baseball history, and it still gives me chills every time I see it.

The Lodge

Arghh – McCarver! I’d rather listen to Suzyn W. than that windbag.

Family Guy’s Parody of McCarver was dead on.

“Tim McCarver: In my view, as good as the Yankees were in the first half of this game, that’s how as bad they’ve been now.”

Johnnyboy

This Boston team is amazing! With the way V-Mart and Big papi are swinging the bat, they seem like world series champions! It was a great idea to take Lester out after 2.1 IP. He needs the rest for the playoffs!

Why did the crowd seem comatose last night? An example is when Arod had just hit a 2 run home run to take a 3 run lead and when he came up to his next at bat to the sound of crickets (yes they were louder than his entrance music)

The Three Amigos

Because as nice as it is to stick it to the Sox… these game are meaningless. I think the stadium is filled with people who know that and people who dont care either way. Our magic number being 3 everything is just making sure pitchers are rested and healthy, bullpen gets work in every other day to not get too rusty.

You know, the real bummer here is if the Yankees win one of the next two games, we skip Derek Jeter in the magic number counter.

Thony3007

I don’t know, but I don’t like Chamberlain pitching in the playoffs. Why not to have a 2009 version of the Cincinaty Reds’s “Nasty Boys” of the 1990 world series… Joba in the seventh, Hughes in the eight and Mo the ninth… Would it be possible?

The Three Amigos

If you are okay with Gaudin pitching in the Alcs and WS that’s fine… I rather have Joba game 4, Guadin clean up and Roberton Hughes and Mo who can go 4 innings if needed.

Plus, it doesn’t have to have anything in common with the other. The wings there are better than EVERYTHING (non-Yankee). Kanye West made a song called “Amazin” about them. Britney Spears made a song called “Gimme More” about them. THAT’S HOW AMAZING THEY ARE.

Kanye West made a song called “Amazin” about them. Britney Spears made a song called “Gimme More” about them. THAT’S HOW AMAZING THEY ARE.

First of all, if anything, these two have made some of the worst decisions in the history of recent-hollywood. So I would never base anything on what they have to say. lol.
Secondly, I’m sure things like your “health” may come become having a wing from there haha

Several times. They get WWE/Boxing/UFC pay-per-views for free which is great.

Henry

“Tonight’s game, was just the sixth time that Yankee Stadium has sold out in 76 games at Yankee Stadium”

This quote from ESPN referring to the Yanks’ “inability to sell tickets”. But what those horse’s asses conviently forget to mention is the fact that despite this, guess who still leads the MLB in attendance?

JM

ME!

Joba Rules

Yeah, I was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay wrong, and I couldn’t be happier.